IRAN: The Mosques Are Burning—and So Is the Lie of the Islamic State

Iran’s Fire is Consuming the Pillars of Theocracy

By: Amil Imani

For those of us who fled the Islamic Republic decades ago, watching the images of mosques burning across our homeland evokes a complex, visceral cocktail of emotions. To the outside observer, a mosque in flames is a tragedy of religious intolerance. But to the Iranian people – and specifically to those of us who have lived under the suffocating veil of theocratic absolute power – these fires are not acts of “terrorism.” They are acts of exorcism.

We are witnessing more than a political protest; we are seeing a definitive, civilizational uprising against the very concept of the Islamic state. As the smoke rises from Tehran to Mashhad, it signals the end of

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